Dwarf female swollen vent

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

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4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

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We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Welly Puff
Puffer Fry
Posts: 11
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Location (country): New Zealand

Dwarf female swollen vent

Post by Welly Puff »

Hey there.
My girl GG (who is currently being courted) has a swollen vent, is this usual for a puffer with eggs? She has been treated for parasites then I thought she may be constipated (as she poops smaller and takes it longer to come out than the boys) so I fasted them for a day and added 1 tbsp of tonic salt per 10 gal, still no change.

Amonia Nitrarites and Nitrates 0 Ph 7.6
120 litre (30 gal) planted tank
1 otto
2 Dwarf puffers (was 5 puffers until 3 days ago, shifted 3 to give these 2 some alone time)
8 Bumble Bee Gobies moved out 7 days ago
Once daily feeding mostly snails, also live white worms and earthworms, live daphnia a little Repashy grub pie they would steal from the Gobies. Frozen bloodworms once a fortnight.
50% water change weekly
Sodium thiosulphate to dechlorinate
Added brooklands tonic salt as above 2 days ago.
Aquarium set up 4 months Tetra safe start cycle after stuffing up my pure Amoina fishless cycle.

Thanks in advance for any knowledge/experience/advice shared.
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Last edited by Welly Puff on Tue Jul 18, 2017 4:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Dwarf female swollen vent

Post by Pufferpunk »

Not sure what "tonic" salt is. Use 1 tbsp Epsom salt/5g for swelling and/or constipation.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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LadyHawk
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Re: Dwarf female swollen vent

Post by LadyHawk »

Shelled peas work too! I take frozen peas and warm them up in water. Then pull the shells off and feed them to my DPs. The trick is getting them to eat it! It's worked for me! Good luck!
Welly Puff
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Re: Dwarf female swollen vent

Post by Welly Puff »

Thanks guys, I will swap out the Brooklands aquarium tonic salt for Epsom salt. And have a go with the peas (possibly not at the same time), she eats everything so far, even has a nibble on Ottos algae waffer on the way down! Any thoughts on wheather gravid females exhibit a swollen vent?
Bleedingheartmommy
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Re: Dwarf female swollen vent

Post by Bleedingheartmommy »

I haven't heard of this myself, though to be honest, every person I have known that has bred these little butt heads... has been accidental (they kept the male female ratio for peace sake, and went to gravel vac one day and found teeny fry!) she noted to obvious difference before that time!?!? Wish we had more on this, but that looks to be a blockage to me, but doesn't mean it is! Plain Epsom salt without scent is what you want, as well as- daphnia is SO great for moving the gut, if she is still plugged up eating live daphnia (none the less), then the pea likely won't do much else. I would do an Epsom salt bath instead of treating in tank (it will stress out the other puffs) of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of bath water, this is the best bath article out there (hasn't let me down!

http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/20 ... m=1#basics
"Genetics loads the gun, and environment pulls the trigger."-Brené Brown
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